Ocala moved slowly to take up new-fangled horseless carriage

Saturday

Feb 23, 2013 at 12:01 AM

If someone recorded the first appearance of a horseless carriage on the streets of Ocala in the early 1900s, it isn't generally known. The sight of one or two experimental buggies may not have attracted much attention because they looked like what they were — buggies.

By David CookColumnist

If someone recorded the first appearance of a horseless carriage on the streets of Ocala in the early 1900s, it isn't generally known. The sight of one or two experimental buggies may not have attracted much attention because they looked like what they were — buggies.Yet, in 1900, historians say at least 9,000 motor-driven vehicles already were on the streets and roads throughout the United States. It is likely that some Ocalans saw early versions of the automobile, either in Ocala or some other city, about that time.All over America, and in Europe, mechanics were experimenting with vehicles that could be powered by steam, electricity or gasoline. The steamboats provided inspiration. If steam could power a boat or ship, certainly the steam engines could be reduced in size to turn the wheels of a carriage.Thomas Edison already had demonstrated some of the possibilities of electricity, and there were reports of experiments with electric-powered autos. For a while, it seemed to be the way many inventors wanted to go.Then, there were the multiple experiments with the internal combustion engine that utilized gasoline. Fertile minds were inspired by what seemed like an infinite variety of methods to eliminate the horse and mule. Because of Ocala's rural character — and other factors — Ocala was slow to catch the horseless carriage fever.

By 1900, there were at least 50 workshops around the United States turning out self-propelled vehicles. Francis E. Stanley of Mechanic Fall, Maine, was producing his Stanley Steamer, which seemed to be a likely prototype for the future.The Fisher Equipment Company of Chicago already had introduced a series of 20 electric models, including buses, cabs, wagons and coupes. Among those manufacturers making vehicles powered by gasoline engines was the Winton Motor Carriage Company of Cleveland.Certainly, ambitious young mechanics and would-be inventors in Ocala also were in their garages tinkering with motors, bicycle chains and wagon wheels, and the wood construction of bodies in which to house the propulsion device. Oldtime Ocalans, in my youth, could recall only one horseless vehicle traveling local streets as early as 1906, almost a decade since the invention of the Stanley Steamer. If there were earlier sightings, nobody bothered to record them in the news media of the day.

The vehicle credited as Ocala's first car was a locally built, motorized buggy that transported Dr. Walter Hood on his medical rounds each day. There is a photo of that car from 1906 with Dr. Hood in the driver's seat, accompanied by a young lady.The photo apparently was made in front of the original Presbyterian Church when it was located on Fort King Street. The vehicle is a simple buckboard, with iron-rimmed wagon wheels driven by a bicycle chain powered by a marine engine. The man who built it was Harry Herbert Meadows, who operated a blacksmith and wagon repair shop on North Magnolia. He was asked to design and build an auto by Hood, who apparently had seen autos in other citiesA general practitioner, Hood saw the horseless carriage as a much-improved way of traveling to see his patients. He wanted one, and he could afford it.

Meadows was assisted by a young man named John H. Spencer, who later became one of Ocala's new car dealers, with a garage, facing what is now Silver Springs Boulevard, at the rear of the Ocala House Hotel.Spencer became a major player in Ocala's first automobile club, traveling by car over virtually non-existent roads to such far-away places as Daytona Beach. His adventures along the road, along with those of other Ocala motorists, were written up by the Ocala Evening Star.Still adventurous, Spencer moved to Oklahoma to enter the oil business, but that didn't work out. He returned to Ocala and became the police chief for many years. Hood's auto may have been his first and last effort at building a vehicle other than a horse-drawn wagon.

Meadows and Spencer took a two-cylinder engine from a motorboat to power Hood's auto. They constructed the wooden body from parts of wagons and buggies in the Meadows shop. Regular wagon wheels were utilized.When the auto was ready to drive, it was christened “Mogul” and was said to be a big success. Hood would drive it for several years before he moved up to a more sophisticated buggy that had headlights and rubber-rimmed wheels.For fun, Hood would drive Mogul on the lime-rock-hardened road to Silver Springs. It was said to be a refreshing experience since the vehicle had no enclosure or windbreaker to protect the driver, who was sailing along at a few miles per hour.

Meadows, an Englishman who came to Ocala in 1891, was already established as a blacksmith and wagon builder when he was approached by Hood is the early 1900s. He had built Ocala's first medical ambulance, a horse-drawn vehicle, in his wagon shop on what is now Northwest First Avenue (old Orange Street).Later, Meadows would move his wagon works to a location on the east side of North Magnolia. By 1915, he had converted his business to a garage and service station. His sons, Harry Hood and Oliver, took over the business in 1923.Harry Hood became the sole owner in 1928 and turned the business over to his son, Stewart Meadows, in 1968. After Stewart's death, his son operated the business. Meadows Garage had become an Ocala institution by that time.Harry Hood was 81 and living in retirement when I first interviewed him about the Dr. Hood car in the 1980s. A question I failed to ask him was why Ocala was so slow to be involved in the development of the horseless carriage.He did tell me about the big, fancy cars that were driven around Ocala in the early 1900s by Ed Carmichael, son of the local whiskey distiller, George Carmichael. But, by then, it was 1912 or later, and numerous Ocalans were driving motor vehicles, including electric cars that survived into the 1930s.An avid Marion County historian, David Cook is a retired editor of the Star-Banner. He may be contacted at 237-2535.